Honoring September 8, the Independence Day of the Republic of Macedonia, the Mountain Climbing Club KORAB from Skopje, has the pleasure to invite you to participate in the 23th, traditional international climbing GOLEM KORAB. The event will take place on September 7, 2014 (Sunday).

This year the Club will also provide a buss transport for all participants to the destination from Skopje and back. Some busses will leave from the Skopje Railway Station and the rest will stand at the student dormitory Goce Delchev. The busses will be leaving at 5 am, and the cost of a return ticket is 600 denars (EUR 10).

For those interested for camping on KORAB mounting this year a camp will be organized on the location Pobeda, on 1450 m a.s.l, starting from Saturday, 06 September 2014. A camping fee is 100 den per tent (the funds from the fee will be used for keeping the environment clean).

PROGRAMME

Sept. 7. (Sunday)
5 am departure with busses from Skopje to KORAB
8:30 am estimated arrival time to KORAB
9 am start of the climb from the location of POBEDA (ex Shtirovica)
3 pm closing of the summit and going back to POBEDA, granting awards
7 pm departure of the last buss to Skopje

The route of the climb to GOLEM KORAB (2764m a.s.l.) is 18160m long, altogether. It is marked and the guides from the Club KORAB will provide assistance to the participants. There will be four points on the route for first aid help. Drinking water will be found on several spots on the route. The starting point is on 1450 m a.s.l.

Important notes:

Please be advised that there is no fixed schedule for departures from Skopje, i.e. the busses will leave as soon as all sits will be occupied. So, when you get off the bus, do not leave behind your belongings in the bus, like food, clothes etc.

The equipment needed is standard mountaineering equipment for fall tracking conditions while climbing on high summits.

Movement of the participants will be in the border area, please follow strictly the marked route.

Please do not leave the garbage on the mountain, i.e. put it in the nearest container. Lets leave KORAB clean, natural and virgin; Lets leave it just the way we found it, magnificent and wonderful!

Every participant is fully responsible for his health, physical condition and safety.

The Club KORAB takes no responsibility for the participants who do not follow the above stated rules.

For the participants interested to stay longer in Skopje or some other place in Macedonia, the Club KORAB can provide accommodation.

GOLEM KORAB Overview

Golem Korab (macedonian) or Maja e Korabit (albanian) both refer to the same, 2764m/9068f high mountain right on the border between Albania and Macedonia. It is a highest mountain for both countries, one of two summits in Europe being national highpoint for more then one country, and 12th highest national point in Europe. Name "Korab" is of Slav origin, it was considered to be a God of sea by various Slavic tribes, before they have switched to christianity. Korab may be considered an off the beaten track mountain resort, at least by the European standards.
Location: Mt. Korab ispanning in a slightly NE to SW orientation, from Golema Korabska vrata pass (2062m) on the nordern end, to the Mali e Grames, just after the Ciganski premin pass on the southern end. A rugged main ridge as well as the summit itself do offer both great and extensive views in all directions (please, see the panoramas further down the page). Beacuse of the bordercrossing policy between two countries and the logistical issues, ascending from the one side and descending down the other side of the mountain currently is not feasible, some day in the future this may change, though.
Closest intl airports are those of Tirana (Albanian capital) and Skopje ( capital of Macedonia). To someones disbelief it may be, but geographical distance from Korab to any of those 2 airports is almost the same, mile or km more or less. Skopje has decent train connections with rest of Europe hence some major routes to Thessaloniki/Greece pass through the Macedonian capital.

NOTE: No need special permition, just report your presence to the border police.

By car: for the sake of convinience and accesibility by road, we`ll stick with the Macedonian route. and our main goal is to reach the trailhead at Stezimir watchtower on the Macedonian side of the mountain. In order to achieve that, we`ll going to hit the Skopje -Tetovo motorway (around 40km of that one). From Tetovo - no need to go into the town - another 30 km of surfaced roadleading SW takes us till town Gostivar where we catch with the Gostivar-Debar road. Another 20 km or so up the Gostivar-Debar road takes us to Mavrovi Anovi, Mavrovi Anovi is rather small town a common point for short trip break with several food shops, restaurants, and few Hotels. This is where we are going to refill our supplies with all the neccessary food and liquid. Only in case we didnt mind to carry those all the way from Skopje, that is. From Mavrovi Anovi , we`ll drive further till village Trnovo, 8km or so from Mavrovi Anovi. At Trnovo, we`ll turn right and off the main Gostivar-Debar road, wave goodbye to the asphalt and say hello to the unpaved carriage road and progress southwestbound toward the village of Nicpur. From Trnovo via Nicpur it takes around 19 km of solid macadam road till sharp leftbound curve beneath Stezimir (watchtower, remember?). After living your car behind, 1 mile of footwork uphill theaforementioned curve takes you to the Strezimir (POBEDA) watchtower. This is where visitors are supposed to leave their vehicles. Now you are inside the Macedonian-Albanian boundary area. Final ascend is more or less straight forward, another portion of the carriage road takes us uphill next to the creek, till the old now abbandoned military watchtower - last place to refill you potable water supply, then gradually catches with the main Korab ridge due north. 4 to 5 hours of nontechnical hike up takes us to the main summit.

There are no mountain huts on mt. Korab. If you plan to spend more than 1 day wandering around, bring the tent and sleeping bag(s). Spare option is to base yourself inside Mavrovo National Park which is not too far away.

As so many mountains in this part of Europe, high hiking season is July/ August. However, given the overall climate circumstances - Macedonia is characterised by cold, damp winters and dry almost subtropical summers when temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius - June and early September will be fine